NEW DELHI: Syed Ahmed Bukhari, the Shahi Imam of Delhi’s Jama Masjid, on Thursday invited Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif for his son’s appointment as the next chief cleric, but excluded Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi from the guest list, theTimes of India reported.

Bukhari did however invite four Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders, including two ministers.

"We have invited the prime minister of Pakistan as we have had relations with him since my father's time, unlike with Modi, whom we have not invited," the paper reported Bukhari as saying.

"Modi has not done anything for Indian Muslims even after coming to power. Indian Muslims have not forgiven him for the 2002 Gujarat riots," Bukhari said, referring to the 2002 riots in Gujarat in which at least 1,000 Muslims were killed.

"Modi has not even apologised (for the riots) and reached out to the Muslims," he said.

"We have also invited Congress president Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul Gandhi along with Vice President Hamid Ansari," said Bukhari.

The anointment of Bukhari’s son, 19-year-old Shaban,is expected to take place on November 22, while guests have been invited for a dinner on November 29.

LUCKNOW From the common man on the street to the head of Asia's most important Islamic seminary Darul Uloom Deoband (DuD), various sections of the Muslim community on Friday condemned and questioned the decision of Syed Ahmed Bukhari, shahi imam of Delhi's Jama Masjid, to overlook Prime Minister Narendra Modi and invite Pakistani PM Nawaz Sharif for the coronation of his son as the naib imam (imam's deputy) on November 22.

"There's no scope for controversies in issues of sharia," Maulana Mufti Abul Qasim Nomani, the mohtamim of DuD, said, questioning the very need of inviting political individuals to any religious event. "We don't address political issues as we're a purely religious entity. Hence I'll prefer to say no more on this issue."

Other top clerics were more direct in their criticism. "Instances like these bring the entire Muslim community under scrutiny," said Maulana Khalid Rasheed, imam of the Lucknow Idgah and member of the executive committee of the All India Muslim Law Board, the highest body of Muslims in India on issues of sharia.

"How can anyone even think of overlooking the Indian PM and going ahead with inviting Pakistan's PM at a time when Pakistani soldiers are chopping the heads of our soldiers on the borders?"

This is the biggest proof that Muslims dont live in an initimidated atmosphere in India. On the other hand they live very confident lives far better than what they lead in west(especially when they try to assert their identity via the traditional garb) or even Pakistan. Imagine a popular americanl muslim inviting Saddam and not inviting american president and making a big show of it in media when american soldiers are dying in Iraq.

Imam bukhari is brazen and provacative and he knows he can be because he is not violating any law in India. As long as you are not you are safe in India from the state - he knows it.